Extracting Blob data

Question

Good morning,
I have a table with the following:
Name Null? Type
DRILLING_REPORT_S VARCHAR2(19)
ROW_CREATE_DATE DATE
ROW_CREATOR VARCHAR2(40)
REPORT_DATE DATE
WELL_S VARCHAR2(19)
TYPICAL_ACT_NAME VARCHAR2(40)
DESCRIPTION VARCHAR2(2000)
DOCUMENT_SPEC_ID VARCHAR2(40)
CMPS_DOC_SPEC_S VARCHAR2(19)
INFORMATION_CNTN_S VARCHAR2(19)
TYP_DOC_SPEC_ID VARCHAR2(40)
WELL_ID VARCHAR2(40)
RIG_ID VARCHAR2(40)
BSASC_SOURCE VARCHAR2(40)
CONTENT                                            LONG RAW
CONTENT_LENGTH NUMBER(10)
BASE_DEPTH NUMBER(10)
TOP_DEPTH NUMBER(10)
FILE_FORMAT VARCHAR2(20)
LAST_UPDATE_DATE DATE
LAST_UPDATED_BY VARCHAR2(40)
CONTAINING_ACT_S VARCHAR2(19)
CONTAINING_ACT_T VARCHAR2(16)
DOCUMENT_STATUS VARCHAR2(40)
START_TIME DATE
END_TIME DATE
The content column which is of a long raw format, has Blob data in it (Excel files, Word Docs and PDF).
How do I extract the Blob data so that I can get the actual files (i.e the Excel, Word and PDF documents)
Would appreciate any assistance with this.
Thanks in advance
Michelle

Answer 1

here what I came up with
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE test_extractfile
IS
i1 BLOB;
len NUMBER;
my_vr RAW (10000);
i2 NUMBER;
i3 NUMBER := 10000;
outputstring UTL_FILE.file_type;
BEGIN
-- get the blob locator
SELECT content
INTO i1
FROM trinmar.drilling_report
WHERE drilling_report_s = 7462256;
-- find the length of the blob column
len := DBMS_LOB.getlength (i1);
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line ('Column Length: ' || TO_CHAR (len));
-- Read 10000 bytes at a time
i2 := 1;
IF len < 10000
THEN
-- If the col length is < 10000
DBMS_LOB.READ (i1, len, i2, my_vr);
outputstring ('c:\temp\trinmar_extract.xls',
RAWTOHEX (my_vr),
'wb',
2 * len
-- You have to convert the data to rawtohex format.
-- Directly sending the buffer
-- data will not work
-- That is the reason why we are sending the length as
-- the double the size of the data read
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line ('Read ' || TO_CHAR (len) || 'Bytes');
ELSE
-- If the col length is > 10000
DBMS_LOB.READ (i1, i3, i2, my_vr);
outputstring ('c:\temp\trinmar_extract.xls',
RAWTOHEX (my_vr),
'wb',
2 * i3
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line ('Read ' || TO_CHAR (i3) || ' Bytes ');
END IF;
i2 := i2 + 10000;
WHILE (i2 < len)
LOOP
-- loop till entire data is fetched
DBMS_LOB.READ (i1, i3, i2, my_vr);
DBMS_OUTPUT.put_line ('Read ' || TO_CHAR (i3 + i2 - 1) || ' Bytes ');
outputstring ('c:\temp\trinmar_extract.xls',
RAWTOHEX (my_vr),
'ab',
2 * i3
i2 := i2 + 10000;
END LOOP;
END;
I'm getting 2 errors:
a) PLS-00385: type mismatch found at 'I1' in SELECT...INTO statement
b) PLS-00221: 'OUTPUTSTRING' is not a procedure or is undefined
Can anyone help?